February 2012
1 post
January 2012
1 post
December 2011
3 posts
Lemontree in numbers!
okay so with very little promotion in 21 days we’ve managed to get
120 users!
133 items have been borrowed. (this wasn’t active in week 1) 413 e-resources have been accessed, 44,585 points scored and 333 badges unlocked!
About 60 of those users are using the Facebook linking feature!
November 2011
4 posts
A flavour of Librarygame at The Library of...
For our friends who are a bit surprised why we’re not writing a pitch document for this Birmingham Library game thing.. well its quite simple really, a couple of factors.
Firstly as a company (RITH) we’ve never chased pots of public money. We’ve started a new policy of refusing to work on speculative bids for local govt. etc.. and we’ve never really pitched for work full...
Our Mission & Mini Roadmap (Part 1)
We think libraries and the people who work in them play an incredibly pivotal role in a civilised society and we’re in the really fortunate position as a small company to be doing something to help with our flavours of Librarygame™
…a society where the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake is considered desirable, where reading is cherished and encouraged, where people can find out...
October 2011
3 posts
What's the benefit to the users
Recently we showed parts of Lemontree to a really good friend of ours Brendan Dawes whilst meeting him about something else that’s very exciting, and he asked a fundamental question.
Here’s iman’s account of that:
Brendan as well as being a good friend of mine, is someone who doesn’t hold back any punches. He’s a straight talking, no bullshit kind of guy, who...
September 2011
3 posts
Retina Magnets - DaftNot2
I’m really pleased that we made the decision to go with this guy! :) Steve who’s worked with some really prestigious studios that he’s sworn to secrecy to protect. *shh but we know because we’ve seen his portfolio.* has joined forces with RITH to create the tasty retina magnets of joy that are embedded within Lemontree! You can get a feel for his work on his tumblr site or...
On the RITH iPad's in the past few weeks.
http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920014614.do
August 2011
6 posts
Reading time
Recently we came across this article outlining an approach to designing social games for learning that involves appealing to our capacity to engage in so called Capital Sins such as Greed in a bid to make the game like experiences compelling and potent to the Nth degree. Linked in the article there’s a great video of a TED talk by Tom Chatfield with mention of Lee Sheldon’s...
Making a gift of a recommendation
we’re big fans of opinionated software, one of those little touches which we think will make interaction within Lemontree a little bit more opinionated is designing the form of reciprocity.
virtual gift giving can be astonishingly mindless, you pick a gift it to a bulk of users, using a currency of some form to facilitate it. This is horribly spammy really! In Lemontree the way we’ve...
July 2011
2 posts
Library usage and its impact on student grades
So there’s a fantastic JISC funded project looking specifically at library usage and its correlation to degree outcomes between a number leading UK universities called the Library Impact Data Project
“students who eventually get the highest grades borrow more in their first year of study than those who eventually get lower grades.” Does sounds like a bit of a no brainer, but...
June 2011
1 post
Development Week 1 - Signup / Registration and...
The wheels are well in motion and this week has been about setting up the first few foundations of Lemontree to work.
One particular area that we’ve given a lot of consideration to and will continue to refine is the sign up page. The signup is at the heart of the interaction.
A user has to feel motivated and passionate enough to sign up and start using your app immediately. For this to...
May 2011
4 posts
Why make the library experience game-like?
The library experience is very much gamelike to begin with:
If we take a standard library: you have a unique environment (which is the library building itself, or a network of libraries if you’re looking further) , you have players of all ages (the patrons), non playing characters, helpers, games-masters or higher ranking players (the library staff). Then you have a variety of rules to...
WatchWe started reading “Game Frame”, by Aaron Dignan. Jesse Schell dubs it as an excellent crash course into adding game mechanics into any experience. We agree!
So far we’ve found it to be a riveting page turner, laden with very informative insights into the reasons why we find certain game mechanics compelling. ..and we’re going to hazard a recommendation, this is a must...
April 2011
3 posts
Development Update 1 - Getting People Talking
The process of design is often far more fluid organic than project plans and schedules allow it to be. There are a couple of tricks we’ve picked up along the way to make sure we stick to our focus of user centered design and keep our promise of delivering something very useful that fulfils the project aims beautifully.
Documenting Need / Canvassing Broadly / Creating a wishlist
First and...
Why, What and How?
Okay so Lemontree which is the first iteration of Librarygame we’re developing for the University of Huddersfield is a way of embedding game mechanics into the very fabric of library interactions, to basically do the following:
encourage library use amongst low - non users.
make library activity subtly visible on channels students are frequenting and make the library market itself...
Who's who, and what for!
Not entirely sure who would get to read this blog, other than it being a way for ourselves to chronicle the development of the project and its growth. Its on tumblr, its really not for show and we might lock it down at some point.
but in case you’re wondering who’s behind it, we’ll we’re an independent interactive agency called Running in the Halls or RITH for short, with...